Gatlinburg

I decided to extend my trip to Gatlinburg to a zero day. There's just so much to do here and i just want to spend a longer amount of time not in my hiking shoes because of my heel and ancle pain.

Barrel, Milk Man, and I started the day off be going to this restaurant with a giant sign that says breakfast.

It was themed to the extreme. Think cracker barrel on steroids. It was actually really cool. They had giant cinamon rolls in the front bakery window that had just come out of the oven right as we walked in to get seated. Milk Man ordered one of those for breakfast. It came covered in frosting and sitting in a pool of it too. They gave us steak knives for the cinnamon rolls. 

I ordered the fried cinamon roll which is essentially one of the cinnamon rolls made into french toast. Mine was topped with a cinamon glaze and whipped cream. 

It was almost sickeningly sweet but I ate it all. It probably would have been better if I split it with someone but it was so very good! 

The three of us walked the strip through Main Street to catch the trolly line that would take us to the post office and the grocery store. Downtown is like a touristy beach town just mountains instead of the ocean. Games, rides, attractions. All kinds of goofy animatronics and museums, 3D rides and they even had stuff like earthquake simulators, haunted houses, and fun houses. 

I didn't take all that many photos, there was just so much to see!

After we got back Barrel and Milkman decided to pack up and head on out. I did laundry and rented the room for another night. It wasn't hard to find another hiker to split the room with. There are just hikers everywhere! I'm sharing the room with Viking tonight. He's from Denmark. Also,  Chris showed up! I haven't seen him since the NOC when he was really sick and left with Ben and others to go back to Franklin. He's splitting a room with MacGyver.

Viking and I wanted to see the aquarium which was at the other end of the strip. I ended up getting an Auntie Ann's pretzel and a Ben & Jerry's chocolate dipped waffle cone along the way.  The aquarium was pretty nice. It reminded me alot of the one in Atlanta but a lot smaller.

I got to pet some horseshoe crabs, moon jellyfish, and stingrays! I love petting stingrays so that is definitely my favorite part of the day. 

There was an out of place Pearl Harbor museum halfway through the aquarium. I have no idea why it's there though. 

On the way back I found a chocolate shop with caramel apples and i got a salted milk chocolate apple! Viking had never had one before, it sounds like caramel apples are just an American thing. I gave him a few slices (the place had sliced the apple for me)  abd he thought it was really strange. 

I saw a melting pot in the main strip and I couldn't resist. A lot of my friends back at home had just eaten there last week so I was really craving it. I decided to go! Viking joined me, a few other hikers were on the fence about coming along because there was a $10 endless appetizers at the Friday's next door. The $10 deal won them over. I still got my melting pot though!

I feel like my stomach is going to explode from the amount of food that I've eaten. I think my hiker hunger that I had in Fontana went away. It'll come back though. It's really strange to be able to eat anything and everything I want to and still be loosing weight. I'm hearing about stories about the things that skinny hikers have to do to be able to keep up, things like drinking gallons of whole  milk like Milkman, liquid calories as he calls it, or Barrel said he picked up a friend hiking the AT another year and he bought all this food at the store and an 8in 2 layer cake and he finished off in one sitting just to get the calories his body needed. It's just crazy!  Endless hunger. I find myself having to eat something every two hours on the trail because my stomach starts growling and I start hiking slower. 

Clingmans Dome

My first time night hiking on the AT happened this morning. When hikers talk about night hiking they typically mean waking up early in the morning and leaving camp in the dark. I left at 6:30am. Sunrise happened around 7am. I wanted the early start to see the sunrise on the highest point on the entire Appalachian Trail, Clingmans Dome.

Before I left the argumentative guy that is giving everyone trouble came out of the shelter and started peeing 10 feet from where I was packing up my pack. Right in the living area of the camp site. It drove my crazy. I was speechless. I couldn't believe that someone would just do that. A couple came out of the shelter to get their bear bags, hung on cables near where he was peeing. They started him and he just sprayed everywhere in his panic. Yuck!

 It was chilly, windy, and moist on my hike today. I essentially walked into a cloud on my three mile hike up. I could see the wisps of cloud pass by in front of me. The wind was incredible. I could just hear it whipping the trees around.  When I got to the top, no sunrise... no sun. It was just a heavy fog. I did take some photos from the very top at the lookout tower.

The forrest reminded me a lot of the North woods up at these higher elevations. It was quite stunning at times.

I had my Dr. Bronners soap in my pocket and it managed to unscrew itself and pour into my pocket while i was hiking today sadly.

Today is Easter Sunday. Someone left little colorful jelly beans randomly on the trail. I found about 5 of them.

I originally planned on skipping Gatlinburg but while on the trail I changed my mind.  When I got into Newfound Gap I made plans with two hikers I kept running into Barrel and Milk Man to split a room for the night in town. The parking lot at this gap was just crowded. People everywhere! It's because it's easter Sunday and everyone wants to get away to visit the parks for the weekend. 

Me at Newfound Gap

Milk Man took a Selfie on my phone

Four people showed up to do trail magic here today! They were all competing to give us their food. One of the girls had ham and cheese sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls. I ate 3! I love those! I can't explain how much ice been craving sandwiches on this trail. Everytime I go backpacking there's always a food that I've been craving. 

TMI: I had been pinching in a stubborn turd  for hours waiting to get into Gatlinburg because I didn't want to stop to dig a hole. I decided to use the parking lot toilets and wow, I don't think I've ever pooped that much before! It was like a snake coming out of me. All one piece, it must have been at least 2 feet long coiled up in the toilet bowl. 

We got a ride into town from a girl who was doing some trail magic. Everyone keeps saying to not go to Gatlinburg because it's touristy and it's like being in downtown disney world but you know, I am a tourist. When am I ever going to go to Gatlinburg again?  It's a charming little town just as described. There's a trolly and a gondola going through town. We stopped at the NOC outpost store. I got a pair of lightweight airy caprees. My current pants are done for. There's a good sized hole in the crotch,  one thigh seam has a hole, the other the seam is coming loose, same goes for the butt area.  I also picked up a pair of new insoles for my shoes. They should be able to lift my heels up a bit more. I've been having horible ancle pain. I think that it's from the bone rubbing against my shoe. Hopefully this will help, it's quite painful.

For dinner we all went to the Texas Roadhouse and ate steaks! That was the highlight of the day! 

Up, up, and up

I'm really getting tired of all the sharp spiked plants out here. There are a few different types but they are all over and make potty trips in the woods very not fun. I'm pretty scratched up from them.

I started really early this morning to beat the heat. It never really got that hot today. It was actually quite nice. I think it got up to 65F. I'm still sweating while hiking as long as it's above 55F.

Today had just been chalked full of ups and downs. Mostly ups though. The higher elevation is taking it's toll on me. It's also been a rough day. I've been hiking so much slower. Everyone else seems to have the same struggle with today.

My ancle is really hurting me. Just the outside left foot, my smaller foot. I'm having so many issues with that foot and shoe. My right foot is doing great though, no issues. I think I really just need the half size smaller. I'm surprised on how much of a difference the half size makes.

I saw a litter of  mouse babies today. They were almost miniature adults. There was a tree raised off the ground so there was a nice little hidding spot underneath the tree. I saw them run across from one side to the other as I passed by.

My upper arms are so itchy and burnt right now! It's driving me crazy. It was overcast and cool with a nice wind almost all day today so I didn't put on any sunscreen until late in the day when the sun poked out from the clouds.

I've been running into an entirely new group of people over and over again from when I started. I'm starting to get to know Igloo, Rasin, Palm Trees, and 2 others who I keep forgetting their names even though I know them better than the rest! They are a middle aged woman who is hiking with this elderly man who is pretty well known it sounds like. He's hiked a ton already and through hiked the AT before. The woman told me that he had said that I'm probably going to make it to Katahdin  (the end of the trail), he said he could tell that I'm tough and she said that he doesn't say compliments like that often. Hearing that is very reassuring! I think that I'm too stubborn to stop hiking unless I really injur myself.

Tonight I'm camped at Double Spring Gap Shelter which is mile 196.4 with 1993.3 miles left to go!

Springtime in the Mountains

There are a lot of small wild flowers popping up all over the place. I got to this field which was all small white flowers just blanketing the ground for over a mile. It almost looked like the ground was frosted.

I'm really pleasantly surprised on how clean this park is compared to all the trash I've seen all along the trail before getting here. It looks so much more well maintained and cared for. Or maybe just the people who come here are just better about picking up after themselves and packing out their trash.

I stopped at Mollies Ridge Shelter on my hike today to eat lunch. This shelter just had a sign that says "toilet area" with no out house. It was a mine field. There was dug up ground and toilet paper everywhere. People were just tossing their used toilet paper and the people who did burry their shit didn't do it very well or deep because it looks as though some animal came by at night and dug them up.

The plants and environment are just so much different than in Georgia. The trail right now is running along the North Carolina- Tennessee boarder for quite a ways. It's just the foliage and trees, it's all changing.

Horses are allowed on the trails in the park. I ran into a group on horseback. For the last 3 miles I've been seeing hoof prints dried in the mud. All of the campsites and shelters have a hitch to tie off horses for the night. I've never been to a place like this before. I can't help from wishing that I could be on horseback right now.

The flies are terrible and bite. They are everywhere and there are tons of them. It's driving me crazy. They don't bug me when I'm walking but every time I stop, they are everywhere. My arms also got more sunburn and they are quite itchy!

The ridge runner who is camped here said that someone got mauled by a bear in his tent at this site last year. Ridge runners work for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. His job is to hike around in a designated area of the trail cleaning up the campgrounds, letting hikers know of the park specific rules here and to help answer any questions that hikers may have.

Tonight I'm camped at Spence Field Shelter which is mile 182.9 with 2006.9 left to go!

Great Smokey Mountains

Today I entered the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. It was a late start today so I started out in the high heat of the day. The temperature was just under 90F and the trail just shot straight up almost all day.

Before getting to the park I crossed the iconic Fontana Dam which was massive! I didn't realize just how large it was until I was on top of the thing. It was the easiest section of the Appalachian Trail yet since it was flat and paved. There was maybe a mile or a bit less of paved roadside trail that I walked today.

I also passed the Fontana Hilton which is the nickname for the nearby shelter, it's suppose to be the nicest shelter on the entire trail. It wasn't all that it was hyped up to be. It was alright. There was a solar charging station outside it and a seperate building with flushable toilets, showers, and sinks. The shelter overlooked the Fontana Lake which was really pretty. I heard that some people went swimming and cliff jumped into the water. It was highly appealing due to the heat.  The water also looked rather polluted so I'm not sure how i felt about that with my feet too.

It feels like there's something missing in my shoes when I walk. My big toes are 3/4th or maybe even 2/3rds the size they had been the day before. There's so much more room in there! It's fantastic. My left toe is looking rather bruised under the nail while the right looks quite white and flushed. I hope that's a good thing? I have no idea what's going on with them.

Entering the GSMNP (Great Smokey Mountain National Park) was different from everything I've hiked so far small green leaves are just unfloding off the tree branches and there are some pine/ coniferous trees here and there. I turned in my permit where the trail enters the park. There was a person there collecting all the permits from the box so I was able to just hand it to him.

Hiking at a steep incline with a particularly heavy pack, it's going to be the longest stretch yet for me to resupply, on a particularly hot day was not a great combination. I really didn't get as far as I'd have liked to. The heat really kicked my ass. I also think that the detergent at Fontana doesn't agree with my skin because I'm quite itchy abd irritated where my clothing touches my skin. My sunburns aren't fun either.

Today is the first day that I've tried out my new sungloves! So far they seemed to have worked great my hands look like they are about to start pealing like a lizard since they look all scaley from the rash. The rash is gone for the most part, i just have healing left to do. Those steroids really did the job.

This campsite has bear cables! I got to use them for the first time. So much easier than bear bagging myself. I just hook my bags on, pull the cable to it's at the top, then attatch the clip to the color coded metal ring on the nearby tree. Fast, simple,  easy.

I had a jar of honey almond butter sent to me but it keeps leaking. I had my scent proof bag get completely coated in the oil so i put it in a separate bag a few days ago and not that bag is leaking! I have that oil all over my bear bag, it's like it's just asking to be taken by a bear. I'm a bit worried about that. Since the GSMNP is a National Park, you can't hunt here so there are a ton of bears here, bears who aren't afraid of humans since they don't get hunted by humans. I feel like bear bait.

I had a small bar of chocolate in a folded wrapper. After a mile of hiking today I remembered it and decided to eat it but it was already melty from the heat. I figured that I would leave it be and eat it in the morning after it cools and hardness overnight but now it's smeared all over in my snack bag.

While walking to the campfire for dinner I stepped on some kind of a spike from a tree and it went through my sandal and I could feel it painfully while I hobbled over. I couldn't even pull it out myself. It had almost stabbed right through the entire shoe.

I'm at Birch Spring Gap which is mile 171.8 with 2,018 miles left to go.

Fontana Village

Justin and I decided to go do all our Fontana stuff together. On the way as we got closer we could see the lake and dam which was really exciting to see. We hiked in the 6 miles to the road and tried hitch hiking in. This girl from France came out right behind us while we were walking towards the town and she got a ride right away but the car was full it just passed us. We walked about a mile towards town then found some chairs on the side of the road and tried hitching a ride from there. The shuttle that the resort owns stopped by and asked if we needed a ride. He said he would stop by on his way back into town and give us a ride. He did and he charged us. We thought we were getting a free ride, we were trying to hitch hike and here he just wanted to make buisness off of us. It was $3 but still. We were almost halfway there and he ordered to pick us up.

We hit up the restaurant first. We both really wanted steaks. This sounded like the kind of place that would have steaks but no, they served a steak after 5pm. I ordered a Hawaiian grilled chicken sandwich which was delicious but not enough. I came to the realization that my hiker hunger has kicked in.  Justin had a burger and felt the same way. We both additionally ordered a second lunch of personal sized pizzas! They even had a white pizza on the menu!

Next was laundry. There wasn't really a place to change and the clothing that I was currently wearing were the ones that NEEDED to be washed. Yikes I smelled bad. I went around to the side the the building to try to get some cover. I changed quickly and no one saw me but it was still rather nerve wracking to change back there.

While laundry was going I picked up my drop box of food from the post office. It turned out that Amazon boxes can't be delivered to the post office so I didn't get my sun gloves but I was told the delivery driver probably brought them to the lodge instead. I was able to borrow a phone to call and they did have it along with one of Justin's boxes. We ended up splitting a room for the night. We had 2 other hikers that were thinking of joining us but decided to head back out onto the trail instead.

I picked up some supplise and a pint of ice cream. I didn't think I could eat it all but I sat down and powered through the entire tub and ate all 760 calories of it. Even right after eating the 2 lunches. That hiker hunger is crazy. At home I usually can only eat half a container at a time. The idea of the half gallon challenge that comes at about halfway through the trail seemed unreal, something that I would never be able to do but now it sounds like something that I can and will do.

The rooms even came with stuffed animals! 

Showering felt so amazing. It was a hot day around 80F. I was sticky with all the sweat that has dried on my body from the past few days, not to mention all the dirt that was stuck to me. I decided to do some nail/foot care. I really cleaned around my nails and cleaned up my blisters. It was nice having a clean sanitary place to do all of this. I decided that I could probably trim a bit more off of my big toe nails and on the last cut of the right toe nail, the really bad one, I cut into the nail bed. The nail bed turned out to have actually been a blister this whole time. A massive blister. The juice just kept pouring out. I ended up having to press my nail to get more of it out. So much came out. The nail still wanted to be up in a higher position so everytime I let go it lifted up and filled with air making bubbles and strange noises each following time I would press it out. The nail is so close to where it's suppose to be. It looks so much better now!

                    

This was after most of it was drained. 

I figured that I should probably drain the other one too. I had cut into the right on accident and didn't want to just go jabbing around with my nail clippers so I was going to use my needle but I realized that I accidentally threw mine away! Justin had a extra one that he gave to me. I sanitized it with a lighter then stuck it under my nail. A small drop came out and that was it. The hole, wasn't large enough. I stuck it in again and deeper then poked it back through the skin and twisted the needle so it would tear the skin open. The fluid just gushed out at first. Then I had to press the nail a few times to get the rest out.

I was so grossed out and scared the whole time. I was crying yet at the same time I was happy. My toes were almost back to normal size. One of the mysteries were solved, it was a giant blister under each of the nails. And now since the giant blisters are empty they are like giant sacks under the nails so the nails move around alot. Yuck!

I really wanted my steak now. I deserved that thing. Justin and I went back for dinner and I got my steak. They even substituted my fries that it came with for macaroni and cheese! I got the s'mores lava cake for dessert. It was so amazing! They even put a candle in it for me! It was a graham cracker cake with chocolate lava and scorched marshmallows on top with chocolate sauce. It was amazing!

Eating dinner with Justin

Fontana Village is at mile 164.4 with 2025.4 left to go.

Mishaps

Today was another long, hot sweaty cruddy day with very steep ups. It was in the high 70s and felt miserable. I woke up feeling all sticky from the sweat and dirt coating my body. While hiking I had a few additional issues pop up.

My pinkie toes started hurting, the toe/ bone/ nail.  I'm not sure exactly why though. It's both feet.

Blisters. I have been getting a bunch of blisters. Most aren't so bad but I stated getting these 2 very deep blisters back when i was walking funny from my big toes hurting. They are on the outside edge of the heels of my feet. They got so big that they were acorn sized and it suddenly got extremely painful and I couldn't walk anymore from it. I had to sit down and drain them. I used antiseptic wipes and a sewing needle to get the job done but they were stubborn. Everytime i poked them a little bead of juice would come out but nothing more. Not even if I sucked it up and saueazed the thing. After lots of poking and stabbing with that needle I ended up just sticking it through the blister so it pops back out then twisting till the skin rips just so I could drain the fluid.  It was just too big to fit in my shoe right. It hurts a little now but it's so much better since it got drained. I put neosporin and bandaids on them.

Sunburn. I burnt up my legs pretty bad today. It stings and everything. I put sunscreen on everywhere but my legs. I kind of figured that all the dirt and sweat would get the job done alone.

I caught up with Buzokie today! They took a side trip from the trail out to visit a friend and had just got dropped back off on the trail right before I got there. They had fruit and I was able to get an orange. Black Bear and Shortcake were there too. I've actually been meeting a ton of people and seeing them here and there for the past few weeks. They came up with a trail name for me which is Mishap. It's very relevant. It feels like everything is going wrong but I'm too stubborn. I'm so stubborn that I'm not going to be leaving this trail unless something serious happens.

Today I saw a lot of different insect life. Many beatles and butterflies, but also ticks, lots of ticks. I've brushed a bunch off of my pack and legs. All of my clothing except my shorts which I just bought were treated with permetherin which keeps bugs and ticks away. I'm assuming and hopinh that I'm tick free but we'll see.

Tonight I'm camped at Cable Gap Shelter which is mile 158.9 with 2030.9 miles left to go.